Dare Memorial School – Thursday 3 July

By Ana & Poppy

We began our final full day in Timor with breakfast at 7. We were then picked up at 8:30 by the party bus to head to Dare Memorial School. We were greeted with smiling faces and excited kids.

They sang us a song  hello my friend welcome, and then we sang together, B-I-N-G-O, the lion sleeps tonight and a Ram Sam Sam. We then sang riptide.   It was a small school with three classrooms and one outdoor meeting space but lots of children.

Radford College has been coming to this school since 2009 were we share a strong connection with the community. The school is located on a hair pin corner on the side of the mountain and they are hoping to move to a new location 200 m down the mountain. 

We split up between the classrooms and mingled with the children varying ages from 5 – 17. There was various things to do from drawing on chalk boards, colouring in, playing cards, playing with balls, playing music and talking.

We all made very special connections with the children and it was hard to say goodbye.

We will all cherish the connections we made today forever and hope that we can find ways to stay in touch with the people we have become closest to. The teachers at Dare hope that the connections we built will not be forgotten 

We then had lunch at Pateo the Portuguese cafe and supermarket and everyone was very pleased with their meals. After lunch we wandered around the Tais markets, there were many many different shops. These all included Tias fabrics, bracelets, bags and so many other souvenirs many of which are made by the women at the tais markets themselves. Our party bus then dropped us back to the hotel where we began the arduous task of trying to fit everything back in our bags. 

We enjoyed a sunset walk to the beach where everyone took plenty of photos and reflected on stories of the previous 10 days together.

Our final dinner together was at a restaurant called Pro Ema. Pro Ema is part of the social gastronomy movement, working to combat, hunger and malnutrition, through the complete utilisation of food and waste reduction. The desserts were beyond extraordinary ranging with flavours of red velvet and rich chocolate to flavours of coconut and fresh fruits. 

After dinner we all received a tais diary as a small gift and a token of our travels and a place to collect all the memories we’ve made here in Timor-Leste.